Cory Smith
Port Townsend High School Student
4-H Stewardship Program Member
2010 Fall Season Work Crew
The first day of our trip we went up on two flat landings, and picked up trash, bullet casings, and pulled noxious weeds off of steep slopes. On that day we pulled out 5 truckloads of garbage, it was also very sunny and we had a blue sky all day. This process is called watershed management. Watershed management is the process of creating and implementing plans, programs, and projects to sustain and enhance watershed functions. Water pollution is bad and could effect our health if we don't keep it under control.
We first went on a 4 hour drive to a restricted area in the National Forest, on the way up the trail piles of fish were spotted near bridges, they were here to be thrown into the river to provide nutrients for the riparian zone. The riparian zone is the interface between the land, and a source of water such as the river or stream. It is important for wetlands to be revitalized with salmon carcasses. Keeping the riparian zones clean is also very important to the wildlife as well as human beings. Riparian zones dissipate stream energy. The curves of a river, combined with root systems, dissipate stream energy, which results in less soil erosion and a reduction in flood damage.
—Elk Habitat Restoration—
The Stewardship program brought many tools and boxes of tree and shrub cuttings to a burn site in the National Forest. We had both cylinder shaped pots as well as, long rectangular pots holding
different types of trees such as oak, and types of shrubs like elderberry and wild rose. We dug holes just big enough to transplant the species of habitual plants. Then we roughed up the roots out of their bundle and put them into burned area. In order to increase the amount of elks roaming. The elk is a large mammal that feeds on grass, and shrubs. There are 6 subspecies of elk around the united states. Also, they're an endangered animals.
—Potting Cuttings—
We had to replace the cuttings we used, so we traveled back to the ranger station and dumped a load of dirt out of the back of a pick-up truck, packed it into plastic pots, then shoved cuttings into them so they would start to grow. The amazing thing about trees and shrubs is that they will grow from just a branch, so you can get many trees out of just one.
however, it's hard to keep all Since most plant cuttings will have no root system of their own, they are likely to die from dehydration if the proper conditions are not met. it takes the plants a while to grow its own roots. When in a pot their roots get cramped up, which causes them to need to transplant for full growth.
—Picnic Table Restoration—
Our second day had to do originally with water proofing picnic table benches, but we ended up only doing a part job on that and spending the rest of the day working on making the ranger station look better. In the beginning of the day we took big 4x12's up onto the covered stage to water proof. This involved painting the top, sides, and ends with a special coating, either stain, paint, wood protectant that provides protection from cracking, warping, or rotting due to moisture.
—Forest Service Station Maintenance—
On the same day that we waterproofed the picnic tables, we helped out the Ranger Station. Our group split up and did different things such as, docking trees away from the road, scraping moss, trimming shrubs back, pulling weeds, and picking up trash. We need to help keep our Service Stations up to snuff because they help our environment out a lot. The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, there are always job openings available for students and adults alike. The Forest Service oversees 155 national forests and 20 grasslands, they take care of and protect them, by replanting and providing habitat for natural species.
After driving up a decommissioned road, we hiked down a trail and spread grass seeds, dug into hard ground, gravel, and planted different types of grass, shrubs, and trees. Towards the middle of the work session, we thought we struck treasure! However it turned out to be an old crushed culvert. A culvert is an device used to channel water, there are different materials you can use to make one including steel, PVC, and concrete. In our case, the section we saw was made from steel. It could have been a hybrid pipe which has a concrete collar around the pipe to enforce strength.
—Campground Maintenance—
A rainy day didn't drive us off our duty of cleaning up a campground near the highway. We picked up trash, and sorted through fire pits in order to clean up the campground. We found old barbecue grates and other strange trash. Camping is a very common thing in families, they leave their urban lifestyle to visit a beautiful place that is out in the wilderness and in a clean and pristine environment. We have to keep them clean so that people continue to enjoy camping.
—Trail Maintenance—
Our final day of the trip consisted of us hiking up the Notch trail digging out ditches, restoring trails with special tools such as the McCloud and the D-ring. Allowing us to rake up and brush trails. It was the most intense day of work in the program, we worked all day and only got a mile up the 2.5 mile trail. There are many different tools and work plans that you can use in order to maintain trail restoration. The tools that we used that day were named after firemen.